Religion and Gender: Online Journal for the Systematic Study of Religion and Gender in an Interdisciplinary Perspective
Call for Papers
Forthcoming Volume
Masculinities and Religion: Continuities and Change
Guest-Editors: Stephen Hunt (Sociology) and Björn Krondorfer (Religious Studies)
As guest editors for this special edition of Religion and Gender we are issuing a formal call
for papers on the theme of 'Masculinities and Religion: Continuities and Change'.
Alongside specially commissioned contributions, we are inviting authors who are at the
cutting edge of research in the area of religion and masculinities, reflecting a wide
international outlook. Echoing the remit of the journal, we are seeking contributions that
are truly interdisciplinary, providing a space in which voices from sociology, religious
studies, men's studies, anthropology, theology and other specialised fields are heard.
In recent years the broad theme of religion and masculinities has proved to be of vital
interest to an emergent scholarship. This special edition will attempt to explore various
dimensions of this crucial topic from a critical perspective. In the challenges wrought
throughout a globalised world traditional masculinities are being challenged, defended and
re-imagined in numerous religious traditions and contexts. This special edition of Religion
and Gender will endeavour to gauge the extent of continuity and change. We are seeking
to engage with the contestations encountered by various religious traditions, alongside the
trajectories of new expressions of religiosity and spirituality. While 'continuity and change'
is a broad theme, it suggests that neither masculinity nor religion are stable categories but
are embedded in cultural, historical, social, and political structures, no matter how fluid
those structures are proving to be. Particularly welcomed would be papers that offer a
theoretical component to religion and masculinity - an element which has hitherto tended
to be a neglected area of concern.
We propose that contributions may wish to address the following questions but are by no
means limited to them:
* How do the more established religious traditions seek to defend hegemonic visions of
masculinity in a changing world?
* How do sacred textual sources define or prescribe ideals of masculinity? Are these
ideals in conflict with lived experiences?
* In which ways are sacred textual sources and established religious authorities defining
or prescribing ideals of masculinity challenged in the contemporary world?
* How are masculinities re-imagined in fresh expressions of religiosity and spirituality?
* What is the relationship between masculinities and sexuality in both innovating and
more conventional forms of religiosity?
* How do non-heterosexual men negotiate life choices within the context of religiously
prescribed and conventional masculinities?
This list of questions is not meant to be exhaustive. It merely indicates a direction. Whatever
focus your contribution may have (historical, theological, textual, sociological, ethical,
ethnographic, etc), please keep in mind the contemporary relevance of any topic chosen.
We are seeking longer papers of between 6-8000 words (excluding footnotes and
references) and shorter papers of 3-4000 words in which the authors present their views on
one specific issue.
Please submit a one-page proposal and short biographical statement (electronic submission
preferred) to both:
Björn Krondorfer, Chair
Professor of Religious Studies
Department of Philosophy & Religious Studies
St. Mary's College of Maryland
St. Mary's City, MD 20686 / USA
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and
Stephen Hunt
Reader in the Sociology of Religion
Department of Health & Applied Social Sciences
University of the West of England
Bristol, BS16 1QY / UK
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Proposals should be submitted by 1st October, 2010. Once accepted, full papers should be
submitted by 30th April, 2011.
About the Editors
Björn Krondorfer is professor of religious studies at St. Mary's College of Maryland, and
currently chair of the department of philosophy and religious studies. His field of expertise is
religion and culture, with an emphasis on gender studies, cultural studies, and Holocaust
studies. In the area of gender and religion, he has published Male Confessions: Intimate
Revelations and the Religious Imagination (Stanford University Press, 2010), Men and
Masculinities in Christianity and Judaism: A Critical Reader (SCM, 2009), and Men's Bodies,
Men's Gods: Male Identities in a (Post-) Christian Culture (New York University Press,
1996). He serves on the editorial boards of The Journal of Men, Masculinities and
Spirituality, Religion and Gender, theologie-geschichte, and CrossCurrents. He had been
appointed series editor of the Cultural Criticism Series of Oxford University Press/AAR and
had served as co-chair for the Men's Studies in Religion Group of the American Academy of
Religion.
Stephen Hunt is reader in the sociology of religion at the University of the West of England,
Bristol. His specialised interests include sociology and theology, religion and sexuality, and
religion and political mobilisation. Among his publications are A History of the Charismatic
Movement in Britain and the United States of America: The Pentecostal Transformation of
Christianity (2 volumes) (Edwin Mellen, 2009); Religion in Everyday Life (Routledge, 2006;)
Alternative Religion: A Sociological Introduction (Ashgate, 2003), and the edited volumes
Contemporary Christianity and LGBT Sexualities (Ashgate, 2009) and Christian
Millenarianism (New York University Press, 2001). Forthcoming publications include Religion
and Sexuality: A Research Companion (edited with A. Yip) (Ashgate) and 5 volumes of the
compilation The Ashgate Library of Essays on Sexuality and Religion (Ashgate). He serves
on the editorial boards of International Journal of Sociology and Anthropology, The
International Politics and Religion Journal, Journal of Sociological Research, and Religion
and Gender.
The Scope and Focus of Religion and Gender
Religion and Gender is the first online international journal for the systematic study of gender
and religion in an interdisciplinary perspective. The journal explores the relation,
confrontation and intersection of gender and religion, taking into account the multiple and
changing manifestations of religion in diverse social and cultural contexts. It analyses and
reflects critically on gender in its interpretative and imaginative dimensions and as a
fundamental principle of social ordering. It seeks to investigate gender at the intersection of
feminist, sexuality, queer, masculinity and diversity studies. As an academic journal, Religion
and Gender aims to publish high level contributions from the humanities and from qualitative
and conceptual studies in the social sciences. It wants to focus in particular on contemporary
debates and topics of emerging interest. Albeit international in scope, the journal takes
seriously that it is situated in contemporary Europe. It seeks to reflect on this position,
particularly from postmodern, postcolonial, and post secular perspectives.
See www.religionandgender.org
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Dr Burkhard Scherer
Reader in Religious Studies
Canterbury Christ Church University, U.K.
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